Though they still don’t have a CEO, MySpace Music, the joint venture between 3 of the 4 major labels (Universal, SonyBMG, and Warner Music) and Fox Interactive’s MySpace.com was set to launch on September 15. According to the Washington Post, that date has been pushed back to sometime later in the week. However, it was just announced, that MySpace Music will have four major sponsors when it (eventually) launches:

McDonald’s, Sony Pictures, Toyota and State Farm will power access to be to a range of new music services by sponsoring a mix of free downloads, song playlists, and personal music players. [Reuters]

American Dollars to 1 CAD

Loonie Reigns
The loonie soared above the U.S. dollar on Friday and never looked back, finishing the day ahead of the greenback for the first time in 31 years. The dollar closed at US$1.005. And many economists now believe the loonie will be nestled above parity well into next year, at least. [National Post]

As of April 12, Commerce Bank will be requiring all accounts to maintain a $100 minimum balance* or be charged a (steep) monthly service fee of $15. Also, in the emptiest of grand gestures, Commerce has “waived their ATM service fees” if you use your Commerce Bank card at another bank’s ATM. In other words, they won’t charge you, if you use your ATM at another bank, but of course they can’t prevent “other banks from charging you to use their ATMs” (which is where the $1.50 comes from in the first place). However, and this is something I guess, they will pay you back the surcharge if you keep a minimum daily balance of $2,500 in your account. What’s next? Charges for the Penny Arcade? Nooooooooooooooooo!

* Accounts under a year old will be charged the fee on their one year anniversary.

Zecco.com, an online financial portal, today announced it will begin offering free online stock trading next week.

I’ll bite, free is free. Great name too.
Internet.com Story

Emigrant Direct claims the newandexciting website will be ready this Monday. Get ready for some awesomeness!

Also, I just got a letter from HSBC (who has a decent website already) offering me a $25 MasterCard GC if I pay 3 bills online by August 15, 2006. Perhaps I will.

HSBC Online Savings accounts now offer 5.05% APY, Emigrant Direct now offers 5.0% (same crappy website), and ING is up, but still lags behind at a paltry 4.35%.

Emigrant Direct and HSBC are now both boasting a lofty 4.8% APY. Emigrant’s website is still as crappy as ever, but they recently wrote to tell me that at some point in June it will be less crappy. Citibank e-savings is a not too shabby 4.75%, and ING still lags behind at a measley 4.25%.

Like I predicted yesterday, HSBC is now at 4.65%.

Citibank AAdvantage MasterCard is offering 25,000 miles for sign up plus no annual fee for the first year. In theory, you have to sign up today to get this deal, but they are usually a bit flexible on this, make sure you print your terms and conditions at the time of application.
Link To Offer

Citibank takes the lead (more or less) in the online savings account market with a new APY of 4.75%. I’m sure it won’t be long before the others follow.
Citibank eSavings Account

This morning, I noticed a new cryptic message on the Vonage website which reads:

On or about May 1, 2006, we will begin charging sales tax to customers in several states across the US. Some state and local governments are requiring that we assess sales taxes on your internet phone service. These charges may be a flat fee or a percentage of your charges and may change from time to time without notice.

The states charging tax will be:
Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota,North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

In other Vonage news, they will be offering certain customers a chance “to reserve shares of common stock for sale at the IPO price in a Directed Share Program”. For more information, see www.vonageipo.com.

Not such an interesting article, fails to mention Presidential Online Bank, which at present, offers the highest online savings rate in the country (4.75%) along with a not too shabby 4.37% for checking accounts.

4.5% APY, no minimus, not a baddeal. Not the highest APY, but integration with citibank.com and citywide ATM’s are a plus.
Click here to open an e-savings account. Use offer code CS22.
- via MyMoneyBlog.com

While still trailing behind HSBC’s lofty 4.8%, Emigrant Direct has closed the gap a little by upping their rates to a respectable 4.5%. For access to some sign up bonuses, see mymoneyblog.com.